Otherwise known as one step foreward and a quick shuffle back!

The night before Bastille Day I went down to the Town Marina to see Marion & David (Kilkea 2). The plan was catch a dance show then an evening meal. Not a lot of people know this, but during the month of July throughout French Polynesia there's a competition involving traditional Polynesian dancing and singing. Anyway, we had a quick drink before 'the orft', during which Marion had a quick look at the program and announced that this was about the only night when there wasn't a show! And I'd remembered to charge my camera, unlike the night before when we watched a race which involved the contestants running around carrying heavy loads of fruit, points being deducted for any fruit dropped, however I digress.

So, apparently showless, we had another tiny tiny rum, then David 'bat ears' thought that he could hear some drumming. We walked up to the open-air theatre and lo and behold, there was a rehearsal going on, no costumes but that meant that entry was free AND you could film, which apparently you can't during the full show. A short video for facebook is in production, but may be a little delayed due to the 'shuffle' backwards which took place the next day.

So, I decided to change the water filter and as the delivery pump was making a bit of noise I thought I'd put the spare (old) one on. After a little tussle, got the filter unscrewed and replaced it, tried the pump before changing it and......no water flow; check tank contents, OK. Clean pre-pump filter, OK. Disconnect water pipe from the pre-filterand no flow from the tank. Hmm, blow hard and bubbles in the tank, suck hard and a trickle of water which stopped. Repeat, same result. OK, change the pump whilst thinking. WAIT FOT IT.

Opened the locker where the spare pump (and other things) is kept to find 2 " of very suspiciously black looking water in the bottom. A quick five hours of removing stuff (like my flying licences, log books, various documents!) and cleaning the locker followed. So, 'stuff' is now drying in the Sun, I have a clean locker however  I do not have a working pressurised water system. Oh, bollocks.

The repairs may be finished tomorrow (Friday). The new prop blades should be here next week, just need the sailmaker to produce a new batten holder and 'my mate' Bruno to actually agree on behalf of the insurance company that the rudders have been slightly damaged, as has the boarding ladder. Oh yes, then I expect we'll 'discuss' the painting of the repaired section.

And, whilst I think of it.....I discovered that I don't have holding tanks as such, Broadblue used the hollow keels as holding tanks, so there's just an in pipe and two outpipes.Oo-er matron.